Death and Dying in the Nineteenth Century South

Sarah Gaby
David Cunningham, Washington University in St. Louis
Geoff Ward, Washington University in St. Louis
Hedwig Lee, Washington University in St. Louis

How did mortality differ by race, gender, enslavement, and place in the nineteenth century south? While there is growing interest in connecting legacies of racial violence to contemporary outcomes, we know little about differences across historical contexts of enslavement. Further, there is limited work examining how Antebellum and Postbellum mortality differs by demographic characteristics or features of the social environment, such as area violence. Using data from the CSI: Dixie Project ( https://csidixie.org/), we examine 1,583 deaths across six South Carolina counties from 1803-1899. We provide a demographic snapshot of mortality and cause of death by race, gender, location, and enslavement status. In doing so, we expand and refine the conception of historical precursors of racially-motivated violence, demonstrate inequalities in mortality, and provide additional context for interpretation (e.g., variation in enslaved homicides by plantation and variation in cause of death reporting by coroner).

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 Presented in Session 195. History, Demography, and Racial Inequality